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Men's Soccer v. West Virginia Credit: Jing Ran , Jing Ran, Jing Ran

When a once-in-a-generation player like senior forward Duke Lacroix enters his final match, people take notice.

This Saturday, Penn men’s soccer will need to rally behind the team’s five seniors when Harvard comes to town.

Although the Red and Blue (6-8-2, 2-2-2 Ivy) are officially out of the Ivy race, the team will enter Saturday with full force, trying to get one last victory for the senior class that includes starting back Jason deFaria, midfielders Kamar Saint-Louis, Louis Schott and Mariano Gonzalez-Guerineau, in addition to attack Lacroix.

“Our guys are going to come out with a lot of energy,” coach Rudy Fuller said.

“The guys on the team think the world of the five seniors. They see what they’ve put into it over their career, and they certainly want to do everything they can to send them out winners.

“And those five seniors obviously want to end out their career in the Red and Blue with a ‘W.’”

“At this point it means everything,” Lacroix said of getting a win in his final game.

After losing to Princeton in a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat, Penn is looking for a more refined style of play on both ends of the field.

On defense, last weekend was the first time Penn allowed three goals or more since Oct. 14. This weekend, the Quakers will look to stop a Harvard team that has scored just seven goals in six Ivy matches.

On the offensive side of the ball, Fuller believes that Penn’s scoring ability is the team’s greatest strength and the big-name scorers, like Lacroix, sophomore forward Alec Neumann and junior midfielder Forrest Clancy, will look to get going against a team that has been strong on the defensive side all year.

Reflecting on entering his last game, Lacroix looks back favorably on his time as a Quaker.

“It’s a bit surreal to me. I feel like I’m living someone else’s life,” Lacroix said. “I remember first day of freshman year coming in here, thinking this day would never come and now it’s three days away.”

Lacroix isn’t the only one amazed that his final game is right on the horizon. After all, these seniors have seen the good and bad of Penn soccer and reached the pinnacle of the Ivy league last season.

“[It’s] pretty crazy,” Saint-Louis said. “It’s really weird because you kind of get into the mentality where it’s one training after another, one game after another and you don’t see the finish line. It’s kind of a routine but then you realize that it can’t go on forever.”

Fuller is proud of his team’s play this season as well, even if they were unsuccessful in winning the Ivy title.

“I think they came in ready to go. They came in fit. And they’ve given it their best effort this season,” Fuller said.

“Take nothing away from what we put into it, even though we’re disappointed that we’re not entering the final game as champs.”

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